Did you ever realize that there’s an insane variety of rice products in the Chinese diet?! Rice porridge (congee), dumplings, noodles, and buns are just a handful. Truly a staple, starting with a breakfast food like congee, “flavored with all manner of additions such as salted eggs, pickled vegetables, meat, or seafood,” and rice dishes for lunch or dinner through to desserts like glutinous rice balls filled with peanut or sesame. Simply resourceful if you ask me! To be able to use one crop to make a multitude of dishes. Not only is rice a staple dietary source, and integrated into cultural celebrations, like zong(4) zi (粽子，tamales) during the 5th lunar month of the Dragon Boat Festival, rice is an interesting look into the integration of food, culture, and language:

Rice appears in a wide range of idioms and expressions. For example, a person’s means of filling his or her bowl, that is, his or her job, is known as a “rice bowl,” so an “iron rice bowl” refers to an “unbreakable” government job-for-life, while a “golden rice bowl” is any well-paid job. Someone who eats a lot is called a “rice bucket,” while someone who eats but does little work is a “rice worm.”

Learn about the overwhelming amount of rice products with the article, Rice by Any Other Name at Travel in Taiwain.

你知不知道中国人用米来做怎么多食品？米真的是最重要：粥，米粉，包子，和饺子就是几个食品用米来做的。还有吃粽子的时候是五一端午节的时间。食品文化和汉语真有关系。